CBRE to handle property management for CommonWealth REIT

CBRE Inc. has been selected by CommonWealth REIT to oversee the property management of the real estate company’s entire U.S. portfolio.

That means that CBRE will handle CommonWealth’s Philadelphia properties including Mellon Bank Center, a 1.28-million-square-foot tower, and Centre Square, a two-building, 1.8-million-square-foot office structure in Center City. CommonWealth owns a few other buildings in Philadelphia and its suburbs.

In a memo issued yesterday to employees, a CBRE executive said that it will take on the job beginning Oct. 1 and called it “one of the largest-ever outsourcing assignments for a U.S.-based, publicly traded REIT.”

CommonWealth has gone through some major changes. In March, shareholders ousted its top executives and in May elected a new board headed up by Sam Zell, a real estate mogul from Chicago. It subsequently relocated the company’s executive offices to Chicago from Boston.